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I'd like to add some more because I have re-read through what i posted and it does seem really negative, like overly negative, and that is not what I meant. A fair few items / articles in the issues I have read were really, really imformative and interesting.

Looking through the magazine again I have wuickly come to the conclusion that there are only 3 people involved in the making. Is this correct????

If so I can fully apprecaite what a mammoth task it must be to produce anything above on beyond what has already been done. Or is it?? there must be a way for us to have a quality magazine available in the uk????

My feelings are it needs to be fresh, interesting, and have more depth. We want to have reviews of products months before the product is available, we want to be kept up to date with industry news, events etc, we want competitions, we want prizes, we want some free stickers to plaster on our helmets and trucks, we want national geographic quality photographs, we wanna know what they are up to "across the pond", we want detailed descriptions and diagrams of interesting new rigging techniques or ideas, We wanna know inside information on standards, products and practises

months before people who dont subscribe find out.

We want it all..........wel I do.

Well..................I do.

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I enjoy essential arb. I read every page. I then file it and keep it in good condition. Some of the articles in it and FJ, I have referenced in my degree work. Therefore to me it is worth my reduced subscription (student).

I understand £25 for four issues is pretty steep. And you do get more for less with other publications. But I honestly believe they put together as much as they can in four months. Quality not quantity.

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In order to bring you the magazine you want we need feedback like this.

With regard to

Concentrate more on the visuals in the magazine, loadsa pictures from competitions etc, close ups of what kit other guys are using etc etc. After all, none of us can actually read and we just look at the pictures anyway. Haha

I was made aware of the fact that you guys like your pictures! Those of you who receive FJ as well as essentialARB will know that there is a huge difference in the use of images between the two magazines – with essentialARB being far more visual than FJ.

With regard to

Its maybe just me, or my opinion but it all seems so sort of "weighted" in the direction of whatever your advertising / reviewing. Almost like a Biast view on things. It has the feel of a group of friends who all own companies or have invested interests in companies, who have started a magazine and are now using it to advertise their products. Just me????

It’s just you!

In all seriousness, this is not the case, though I understand where you are coming from. Those of you who are aware of FJ and Forestry & British Timber’s backgrounds, will know that we acquired essentialARB when we bought out F&BT. It was sometime before we took the decision to relaunch essentialARB. Following its relaunch in 2008 we have tweaked the mag, and done a great deal to work to re-establish the ‘brand’ that is essentialARB, and in addition had several editors, before taking the decision in mid 2009 to bring the editorship in-house, which is when I took over. Sourcing editorial content and advertising is pretty much the same as sourcing subscribers – we have to make sure that the product meets the end user requirements. This may on occasion mean that an advertiser seeks editorial to accompany an advert, or to give another example if we run a company profile where the company is using a particular make of equipment, or run a feature on a particular type of product (eg tree shelters) – we would always attempt to secure advertising from the manufacturers involved – this is just good business sense. So there will be a degree of ‘bias’ as you call it.

With regard to

Also the price really bugs me. £25 oh thats not expensive. Oh yes it is £6.25 (per issue) for something thats no more full of content than something you could get for around £1.25 once a week

In the present economic and financial climate it is difficult to know where to pitch the price of a new publication. essentialARB has never had a cover price before, it was always given as free supplement to F & BT. It was relaunched with the idea of ‘growing it’ to a stand alone publication, perhaps published on a more regular basis (whereas it is still currently available as a free supplement to FJ), and it was with this in mind that the price was set.

With regard to

Looking through the magazine again I have wuickly come to the conclusion that there are only 3 people involved in the making. Is this correct????

If so I can fully apprecaite what a mammoth task it must be to produce anything above on beyond what has already been done.

I am not sure in what context you mean – making it or writing it?

Assuming you mean making it – there are four people involved – myself as editor, responsible for gathering editorial, editing it, writing editorial and making up adverts, Anne Berry our Advertising Manager who negotiates and secures advertising copy, and provides editorial content, Ruth Cowan who does the majority of the design and layout for the magazine and Gina, who works on gathering copy and chasing editorial. In addition we have a team of a dozen or so freelance writers who supply editorial either on commission or from their own proposals. We are also fortunate to have regular contributors from within the arb industry.

With regard to

My feelings are it needs to be fresh, interesting, and have more depth. We want to have reviews of products months before the product is available, we want to be kept up to date with industry news, events etc, we want competitions, we want prizes, we want some free stickers to plaster on our helmets and trucks, we want national geographic quality photographs, we wanna know what they are up to "across the pond", we want detailed descriptions and diagrams of interesting new rigging techniques or ideas, We wanna know inside information on standards, products and practises months before people who dont subscribe find out.

Well this is just what we need to know – what DO you want!

In terms of being ‘fresh’, and being kept up to date with news – I have to say this is one of the difficulties we face with being a quarterly publication. I collect relevant news stories for the three months between issues, as I am sure you appreciate, by the time I come to publish, they aren’t news anymore (though we do try and incorporate news items on a monthly basis in the arb pages of FJ as well).

With regard to the content, and the request for more equipment reviews and techniques, we're working on this currently - and looking for people from within the industry to help us with this....over to you!

We are always on the lookout for articles and reviews so contributions are very welcome.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Im just waiting on some information to come in from individual data gatherers on the FRDBI database this is taking a little while but will be in touch soon. Ive a few articles in the pipeline on a theme, no prizes for guessing the theme!

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We are currently looking at the pricing structure. I would have to say that we tend to encourage people to take the whole package - Forestry Journal plus essentialARB - which is a far better deal at £59 for 16 mags (12 Forestry Journal 4 essentialARB).

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